Aveiro sits on a shallow coastal lagoon about an hour south of Porto, and its nickname — the Portuguese Venice — is well earned. The city is laced with narrow canals crossed by arched bridges, and colourful moliceiro boats drift between them carrying tourists where fishermen once harvested seaweed.
The canals give Aveiro its character, but the city has more going for it than the gondola rides. The covered market and the Art Nouveau buildings around Praça da República are worth a wander, and the coastline just west of town — reached in ten minutes by bike or bus — opens onto long Atlantic beaches backed by dunes. The lighthouse at Barra, the tallest in the Iberian Peninsula, marks the point where the lagoon meets the sea.
One local thing to seek out: ovos moles, a sweet made from egg yolks and sugar wrapped in thin wafer shells shaped like fish and seashells. Aveiro is their birthplace, and every pastry shop in the centre sells them.